Keynote and Invited Speakers

"From vegetation indices to plant traits of vegetation stress: progress on imaging spectroscopy technology and methods" Prof. Pablo J.  Zarco-Tejada School of Agriculture and the Melbourne School of Engineering, University of Melbourne

20 years of progress in remote sensing technology and methods has enabled the development of spectral-based indicators to better understand vegetation functioning at large scales. The push on airborne imaging spectroscopy technologies has also required big efforts on the methodological aspects of the spectral analysis to properly interpret the spectral signatures. From vegetation indices widely used in the last century, we are now using physically-based approaches to retrieve traits related to early stress. Such push in technology have required the development of fast processing and data analysis methods, in some cases linked with artificial intelligence approaches. Nevertheless, limitations exist particularly when these AI methods are used without the understanding of the photon-vegetation interaction and the physiological drivers involved. The speech will discuss the progress made in the last 20 years of physiology-based remote sensing research, highlighting the recent developments and the main exiting limitations.